At this time last year, we were all hot and bothered about an ever-growing winning streak assembled by the Patriots. Each week, the Pats won. And each week, we had to listen to more kvetching from cranky veterans of the 1972 Miami Dolphins who feared they were going to be relegated to history's standing-room-only section.
Now it's the Celtics, whose winning streak has us all hot and bothered. And if they keep this thing going, it's only a matter of time before we'll be checking in on veterans from another professional sports franchise from that long-ago year - the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers, whose 33-game winning streak remains the longest in NBA history. Heck, it's the longest in SPORTS history.
With their 94-82 victory over the New Orleans Hornets last night at the Garden, the Celtics have now won 14 straight games. That's a long, long, way from challenging the '72 Lakers, but as a nice warm-up act the Celtics are growing closer, ever closer, to establishing a FRANCHISEwinning streak.
The 14-game winning streak is tied for fourth-best in Celtics history. The 1985-86 and 1957-58 Celtics both had 14-game winning streaks. Next up is the 1964-65 Celtics, who won 16 in a row, followed by the '59-60 Celtics in second place with a 17-game winning streak.
Atop the list is the 1981-82 Celtics, who from Feb. 24 to March 26, 1982, won 18 games in a row.
Think about that: More than a month without a loss. So here's the question: These winning streaks, are they good . . . or bad? Well, OF COURSE they are good, in the sense that winning is the whole point of trotting out to the parquet in the first place, right?
But does pressure build as these streaks grow? Last year's Patriots fell famously and tantalizingly short of submitting an undefeated season. Do these winning streaks wear a team down? The 1981-82 Celtics, after all, did not win a championship. To hear the Celtics talk, this winning-streak business is all new and shiny.
``We got on the plane (Thursday) night and we talked about it,'' said Kevin Garnett, who had 19 points in last night's victory over the Hornets. ``But nobody had any prior knowledge. Probably Ray (Allen), because he just knows everything.'' Not so, said Allen, who thinks winning streaks are overrated.
``You're not thinking about streaks, you're thinking about the next game, and the next game after that,'' he said. ``All we have is the game is front of us, and everyone has done a great job focusing on that. ``We're not saying, `OK, let's win 20 in a row,' '' he continued. ``We might lose one and then win 10 more in a row. Sometimes the other team comes out and plays better than you do. You can't win all of them.''
Apparently Celtics coach Doc Rivers had winning streaks on his mind last night, but only in the sense that he used them in his pregame sermon as a means to keep his players' minds properly fixed on the big prize. ``Doc was saying in the locker room today that our ultimate goal is to win the championship,'' said Garnett. ``The ultimate goal is the trophy.''
Paul Pierce, who has been around the Celtics a lot longer than Garnett and Allen, was at least willing to show some love to the past, saying, ``It's great to a part of Celtics history.''
But that's as far as he was going to take it.
``At the same time,'' he said, ``I understand what our ultimate goal is. What drives us is that we're trying to get better. We don't care about the streak. It all goes out the window if we don't win the championship.'' Something last year's Patriots know a little something about.
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